Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters (Caste System)
by carinomio13
Summary: A mutant student faced with finding herself, after her reality is shattered...
1. Meltdown

**This takes place after Alexei meets Luna for the first time. Luna is a student that she is going to tutor that is of a lower rank. Again this story takes place in a caste system format where the school is divided not only by grade/class but by rank. Sorry about the weird format, the story started out on my phone. If you have any questions let me know :) **

Alexei shook Luna's hand once more then walked away hoping no one saw them make physical contact. People had been staring at her since she walked in. Maybe it was her scrubs or the badge she wore to access the lower class building. What she knew really caught their attention was the bandana she was required to wear above her elbow which displayed large symbol of her Elite rank, the Griffon, with a small J in the corner to show her class. As much as she loved her superiority, she detested having to wear the band anytime she left the Elite section of the campus. It made her feel as if she was marked, almost in a way comparable to the Jews in Concentration Camps. It made her sick. She had forgotten about it until she saw her reflection leaving. In an instant she bolted to her gate dying to remove the cursed object. Once inside the gate she ripped it off her arm and threw it to the ground. "Hey now, I know you don't like that band but you do have to take care of it." She smiled at the sound of Lazarus' voice. Picking up her band he approached her, his hair was the exact same color as hers and their eyes matched as well. He stood a foot taller than Alexei. Often the couple was mistaken for brother and sister by new comers. Lazarus wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in to him. His huge bulging muscles swarmed her. Her boyfriend was built like a tank. "I am so glad you waited for me." He kissed the top of her head, "I knew you would need someone here…"

She looked up smiling and kissed his lips. "That is what I love about  
you, you are always smiling and your smile is the most beautiful thing  
I have seen," he told her once they let go. Taking her hand they  
walked back to her apartment. The two had met their senior year of  
high school when Alexei transferred to the campus. Instantly they  
became best friends. They hadn't got romantic until the middle of  
their freshman year of college. They both decided to go in as lawyers  
and now were almost done with PreLaw. "Do you know what I love about  
you?" Alexei asked, "Everything!" With that he picked her up and  
bolted up to her couch. He had to be careful putting her down, not to  
crush her. His abilities were agility, strength, reflexes, and super  
tough skin. Alexei called him her SuperHulk. She giggled as he stood  
up above her then dashed into the kitchen. "Is it that hard for you to  
just walk anywhere?" she teased. "Yes, yes it is!" he replied with a  
wink, "Now tell me about your day."

"First off I woke up late because of Mrs. Fathead eating the cord to  
my alarm clock! So I had to hurry I met with Dr. Renoir to get the  
info to meet discuss the community service for my degree, which I  
called you about right after while having breakfast. Then I had my  
final for my anatomy class which was super fun! It was in three parts.  
The first was a written, then the second, dissection of a pig. Which  
while we were doing that, he graded the written portion and depending  
on how you scored you either got another written portion on if you  
did less than a high B. BUT if you got above that, like myself," she  
said boastfully, you got to dissect a specific part of a human  
cadaver! HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!" Skipping over to the breakfast bar,  
she whispered to Lazarus as he made their lunch, "and guess which part  
I received… THE BRAIN!" she yelled. "Babe! That is so awesome! I am so  
proud of you!" he said leaning over to kiss her. "Then I put on that  
blasted band and ran over to the Upper Class library to meet Luna." He  
asked her how the meeting went. "It was surprisingly really really  
great. At first I was not grossed out, but it made me uncomfortable.  
Everything and everyone was so foreign and they kept staring. Then  
Luna herself was a bit of an oddball. I almost laughed at her before  
even talking to her. But then once I met her eyes… All my stress from  
the summer and awkwardness of being there went away. She made me  
laugh. Like really laugh. It was weird! Then after everything started  
coming back and I realized I had shaken her hand and I started to  
freak a little. Ok maybe not a little, a lot so I had to rush to get  
out of there and force myself to stick to the laws. With her though,  
it was tough. It was so easy just to talk to her. IT WAS WEIRD!"  
Lazarus couldn't help but to chuckle over how worked up she got, "I  
told you they are not that different from us." Alexei smiled in  
agreement with him. She used to tease him saying he would become a  
pro-bono lawyer. "Hey where is Mrs. Fathead?" she asked him. Just then  
a giant grey fluffy cat jumped on to her lap. Excusing herself, she  
took the cat back to the bedroom thinking about the meeting with Luna,  
feeling that it wasn't what Lazarus had said that made them connect.  
Something had clicked with Luna that she had not felt since she first  
met Lazarus. She wanted to figure out what it was and maybe would once  
they met again.

After closing her cat in her bedroom so they could eat, she sat back down and voiced, "No I don't think that is it. You know how I am with people. It wasn't like that." He asked what she meant as she took a bite of her pizza. Once swallowing she replied, "The closest I can put it to is you. But now I realize it was still very different from you and I." This made Lazarus smile. "Well I would hope so. I might have had to go kick that girl's ass if it was the same type of connection." Alexei laughed having to cover her mouth to keep the food in. From there he went on to tell her about his day. He went to the gym then played a game of touch football and got his schedule for that year. They compared their schedules to find they once again had all the same classes. It wasn't surprising considering there was a small population of Elites and an even smaller population in the classes they were taking. After that they decided to try to relax on their last day of freedom by watching a movie.

Quickly it turned into a passionate make out session, started by Lazarus, which lasted the first half of the film. The moment he slid his hand into her pants she pulled away and rolled over to lie next to him. He sighed in disappointment. "Why can't I just touch you?" he asked trying to keep his temper under control. "I understand you wanting to keep your virginity until marriage. We both decided on that even before we were a couple. But honestly Alexei, I want you, I want to feel you and taste you. Oral sex does not break that." Silently she stared at the screen, watching Kate Beckinsale steal blood for her half-breed boyfriend. They sat there for a few minutes, not saying anything. With each second he got angrier. Finally he jumped up and yelled, "What the hell Alexei? You rather watch your stupid ass fucking movies about shit that isn't real, when the real thing is right in front of you! Why? You love to have these juicy hot ass make out sessions but once anything below the waistline even gets mentioned, you bolt! Why? You say you love me, but you don't ever give the one thing that I ask of you! Why? Instead of spending your first summer where you can leave campus with me, you choose to spend it here. You choose to work on pointless classes! Why? WHY? WHY? WHY? BECAUSE YOU ARE FUCKING SELFISH!"

The entire time he berated her, she tried to block him out. She knew it was just one of his temper tantrums. It would pass, he didn't mean it. But still it hurt her. Each word cut her deeper and deeper. This wasn't the first time he had fired those things at her. It had gotten worse and more since he returned from visiting his family in Los Angeles. Opening her eyes she felt her hands get hot. She had not felt her fangs come through. Looking down at her hands she saw she had a fireball in her hand, in position to throw it directly at Lazarus who now had his back to her. Quickly she extinguished it and took a deep breath. "I think you should leave now," she said to him in a low cold voice. He turned and faced her, shaking. His eyes were bloodshot and ice cold in anger. "Fuck you Alexei," he growled at her, in her face before grabbing his coat and storming out the door. Right after she locked the door behind him, she ran over to her bathroom tub and vomited. She kept at it until her stomach was empty. Her body trembled, wanting to explode. At that moment she was glad that her tub and shower were separate. Stumbling over to the shower she cranked up the cold water and stepped in drenching herself in the icy temperature. Feeling the heat build up from her feet, she knew this was it. Alexei screamed out her emotions as the blast of heat ripped from her body filling the bathroom with steam…

When Alexei awoke, she felt really groggy and her throat ached. She couldn't see clearly. Thinking that she just fell asleep with her contacts in, she reached up to rub her eyes only to find she could not lift her hands more than a few inches. Again she tried to no prevail. "What in the world?" she asked herself. Squeezing her eyes shut then blinking them, Alexei cleared her vision some and looked down at her body. Her hands and feet were cuffed to a hospital bed. She wore white hospital issued pajamas and had several machines hooked up to her as well as monitors on her. There was a pounding in her ears as the blood rushed through her veins. The monitor hooked up to her heart beeped in reaction. Squinting she looked around and saw the machines hooked up to her, when she looked up she saw the viewing gallery above her, she saw the computers and white walls surrounding her. "Oh no no no no no!" Alexei began to cry and fight to get out when she realized where she was… the campus psychiatric facility.

The machines went off as Alexei's heart rate and blood pressure began to climb. Instantly doctors and nurses flooded the room, surrounding her bed. They began touching her adjusting the monitors, pulling some of the lines out and injecting her with new ones. Moaning and crying in pain she told them, "No no! Get away from me!" They ignored her as she bucked and writhed beneath their tortuous touch. She tried to used her powers, but it was useless. Sobbing she looked up. She may not have been able to see clearly but she recognized the figure in the gallery perfectly. "LAZARUS! Lazarus, help me! Help me please! Help me baby, help me," she whimpered in pain as they stuck her again, pleading for him to rescue her. He turned and walked away from the glass, out of her sight. "NOOO LAZARUS! LAZARUS! HELP ME! LAZARUS!"Alexei screamed. Just then she felt a sharp pain in the side of her neck and the world went dark.

Slowly Alexei gained consciousness. Out of fear she did not open her eyes. Instead she tried to lift each limb; one by one they failed to move above a few inches. Taking a deep breath, she very slowly opened her eyes. Examining her body she found she now only had an IV in wrist and the standard monitors. Looking down she saw spots of blood where all the other lines had been removed. From there she squinted to see the rest of the room and found she had been moved to a normal appearing room. Much to her relief, there wasn't a gallery. Alexei threw her head back to try to sort this all out. Why had Lazarus left her like that? He couldn't be mad at her. She thought back to the last thing she remembered before waking up the first time, "The last thing I remember is that we were studying for finals. Today should be final day shouldn't it? Oh no… What if I missed sophomore exams? I won't be a junior next year! But wait! Why am I here? There is no reason for me to be here!" Unsuccessfully she tried to rationalize why she was in the situation she was in. After several minutes of pure frustration, she began to cry feeling scared again. A nurse walking by her room noticed that Alexei had woken up and had her doctor paged.

"Good morning Ms. Kensington. How are you feeling?" the doctor asked her in a very cheery voice checking her vision and her vitals. He was in his early to mid fifties, in very good shape. He was kind of small but very defined even under the lab coat. To Alexei he resembled an older Mark Harmon. Reading his coat she found his name was Dr. Raymond Gordon. She smiled back at her doctor; it wasn't one of her normal happy, brilliant smiles. This smile said 'how fucking stupid are you? If I could, in this very moment I would rip your face from your skull!' But all that escaped from her lips was "My body hurts." Even she was shocked by those three stupid words; they were nowhere in her thought process. His laugh snapped her into complete awareness. "Can you please tell me why am here? Why I am handcuffed? Where is my boyfriend?" she asked the man through her teeth, trying to keep her wit about her.

"Can you tell me what the last thing you remember before arriving at the hospital?" he asked looking up from her chart before passing off to the nurse. Closing her eyes she told him all that she had thought about in the time that she had awoken. He then turned to the nurse who was writing everything down, "As you can see, a case of amnesia. Not that uncommon in a case like this." This only infuriated Alexei more. "I have amnesia? A case like this? Why am I here? What happened?" Clearing his throat, Dr. Gordon pulled up a chair next to her bed. "Well Ms. Kensington, there was a bit of an incident. Let me start off by saying a lot has occurred since your last memories. You are now; ummm today would have been the first day of your junior year. We figured you had an emotional breakdown. Mr. Fields told us that you had been under a lot of pressure this summer from your additional classes as well anxiety from the classes you will be taking. Top that off with a major fight with your boyfriend and well, that would do it… Due to the critical acuteness of the connection between your abilities and emotions, a number of events occurred that were beyond your control."

After telling her she had got into a major fight with Lazarus, he continued "We imagine that you went to the shower to contain yourself but you underestimated the power and force of your release. Before I continue, can you tell me the hottest your flames have ever been?" Again memories flashed before her eyes causing her to hesitate in answering. "Just shy of 2,500 Kelvin." This seemed to confuse Dr. Gordon. "That is significantly cooler than we estimated your temperature to be. Our equipment couldn't register you… the machines were destroyed before they were even turned on. .. But based on observation we figure your height is at least 6,000 Kelvin. Your flames are no longer red, but blue due to the high level." Alexei was shocked by the news. Her previous temperature had more than doubled. What upset her even more was the damage she had caused. "Did I hurt anyone? I will find a way to cover the machines. I want to make this right. What happened?" She asked with him almost pleadingly.

"You ignited in the shower and in some point passed out. From there we think that the temperature and mass of the flames began to grow. It spread from your bathroom to the other rooms. Now this all happened in between the time that it took Mr. Fields to leave and begin to pull out of the complex. He saw the explosion from your apartment burst from the windows. He then called 911 and proceeded to go up to your apartment to rescue you. Which is a good thing he did because, you were no longer using your powers. Thankfully you were not significantly hurt, just some lacerations and contusions… The first time you woke up, we think you still were not fully conscious because your flames began seconds after you opened your eyes. By the time we realized what was going on, your flames had engulfed the room and we had to extinguish you and put you under. We then gave you a drug which disabled your abilities. The second time you regained consciousness, I am not sure you remember or not, but you had a very violent panic attack. I was not able to get you to focus, so again we put you under. Now… You should remember what has happened since you woke up this time," he concluded. Alexei just took it all in, partially in shock; partially trying to regain her memory.

"So I can leave?" she asked trying to act eager and sitting up. Forgetting about the handcuffs, she barely moved again. "No, you can't. Based on past history and the lack of control, as well as advisement from your parents, we are keeping you here under observation until you are deemed fit to return to society…" Instantly a girl's face popped into her mind. Alexei did not recognize the girl, but she felt that she was somehow important. "Why? I am fine now! Test me! I will pass with flying colors! Just please, I can't do this again!" she pleaded as Dr. Gordon began to leave the room. This stopped him in his tracks. "Have a good night Ms. Kensington, we will begin our tests in the morning." With that he left her alone in the white, fireproof room; bound to her hospital bed.

Looking up into the gallery, she hoped to see Lazarus. Instead she saw that the room was dark. "Why is this happening to me?" she thought to herself as the nurse walked in. "The doctor said you would have a tough time sleeping to night so he prescribed this…" she told Alexei as she injected the syringe into her IV line. Alexei began to protest but her vision quickly became cloudy and the last thing she saw before passing out was the nurse waving from the doorway…


	2. Medication

A MONTH LATER

Red indents on her wrists and ankles left by the binds throbbed as Alexei put her white scrubs on. After she was done getting dressed, she analyzed her reflection in the mirror. Her skin had become paper white; her lips were cut and cracked. Her once flawless raven shoulder length hair had grown into a cloudy mess. All muscle from her body had gone down and she looked skeletal. The most noticeable change by those who knew her was that the color from her eyes was gone. In their place were dull grey, glazed over orbs. It was as if she had become a ghost of her formal self. Alexei rubbed her wrist after the nurse had put her new hospital band on. She continued to look at herself. A small smirk formed at her mouth. "At least I don't have to wear that stupid jacket anymore. Between the binds and the jacket I swear my arms were going to fall off," she thought. Looking down at her calves, she realized that was the only thing on her body that had improved. Memories of her workouts in the padded room flashed across her mind.

Dr. Gordon soon walked into the room and stood behind her in the mirror. "Almost free Ms. Kensington. Today you get out of solitary confinement." He then moved to the tray next to her and picked up a large syringe. "This will help take the edge off. I bet you are nervous." She had given up on protesting any of their medications. It was pointless. Fighting only got you larger doses. Alexei shook her hands making sure they still had feeling. It was a habit she picked up after the combination of medication and restraints. "Alright let's go. I have much to show you in very little time." The doctor told her as he escorted her out with the nurse and orderly.

Alexei stumbled through the hallway. The medication was taking its toll on her conscious; her eyes fluttered trying to stay awake. White halls around her began to spin and dim in and out. This caused her to lose her balance and fall into a crowd of orderlies escorting another patient. They fell to the side causing her to land right in the middle of their formation. Contact on her skin sent a shiver through entire body. Before she could even open her eyes, hands pulled her away and picked her up. Every fiber of her being tingled; she felt parts of her body she never knew existed. The shiver moved though her body like a current until it reached her brain. It brought so much pleasure and pain that it overwhelmed her and knocked her out.

"Miss Kensington, Miss Kensington!" Dr. Gordon called out to her. Alexei opened her eyes to see him right in her face. "Guess we might have given you your medication a little too early!" he told her with a chuckle. He then sat her up in her bed. "Welcome to your new room!" Looking around her room she found it was completely plain. Everything was white and either cotton or plastic. Her twin sized bed was on the far left of the room. Her eyes trailed the room across two desks too another twin sized bed on the right wall. Upon seeing the other bed she asked, "I have a roommate?" It seemed a bit of a reach that they would throw her completely in with other people so early, but she wasn't complaining. She craved real interaction. "At the moment no, but depending how well you do, you might." Taking a deep breath, she laid back down. "Your examination was clear. Thankfully your fall was broken and you didn't hit your head. Rest now, I will be back in an hour to check on how you are doing. Maybe we will give you a tour then. "

She sighed in relief that he was gone. She wasn't sure if she could have contained her excitement any longer. Her memory was back. "I can't believe how clear everything is." All it came back in the fall. "I don't even feel foggy from the drugs. The fight with Lazarus, the apartment, my classes, the tutoring… Luna… That is who I have been seeing in my dreams…" she said to herself. Worry instantly hit her.

It felt as if something was wrong. Not majorly wrong, just not right. "How will I know if she is ok? How can I even talk to her?" Her legs ached to pace the room, but she restrained herself. If they caught her on camera, then they would be tipped off that something was different about her. To cover herself, Alexei decided just to close her eyes and put herself to sleep and out of her head. It upset her that the thing she had been wanting the most, was about to ruin her. Slowly she fell asleep…


	3. Dreaming

At first her dreams were just of her memories coming back, they began to change as she left the meeting of Luna at the library. This was the first real dream that she had had since her arrival in the institution. Before they had just been flashes of images and sounds, nothing that had made any sense..

As she walked across the courtyard clearing a young man grabbed her and pulled her into the woods slamming her into a tree. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" he yelled at her. Before she could say anything or even fight back he continued yelling, "YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T JUST VISIT HER LIKE THAT! PEOPLE WOULD CATCH ON TO YOU TWO! ESPECIALLY HOLDING HER HAND! YOU ARE SO LUCKY I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO SAW! IF I DIDN'T CARE SO MUCH ABOUT HER! I WOULD KILL YOU!" He then slammed her head against the tree, and the dream switched to third person and Alexei watched as her body responded much in the way that her old self would. She smirked and her body transformed as she tapped into her powers. Her eyes began to glow a light purple and her fangs protruded. "As if you could Oliver!" she hissed at him. She then grabbed him by the wrist where he held her neck and twisted it around bringing him to his knees. In her other hand she produced a flame about the size of a softball. "Don't touch me again, or it will be last thing you do!" Alexei then threw the flame at his feet and released him. Walking away from him was when she was woken up by a voice calling her name.

"Miss Kensington, it is 8:30 am. Doctor Gordon requested that you were to be awoken at this time." Her mind was still half way in the dream. "Ok," was all she said to the nurse. It wasn't until she stuck the IV into Alexei's arm that reality completely sunk in. "You need to eat your breakfast and take your medication. By then the doctor should be back and will give you your tour." The old woman then brought in a tray of food and left Alexei alone with her thoughts.

The dream had rattled her to her core. She had no idea what it was about, what it meant, or even who that Oliver boy was that she nearly killed. Feeling the IV course through her veins drained her energy. Alexei could feel her powers being even more subdued. "If only one morning they would forget to give me that damn IV!" she said as she opened her tray and sat at her desk to eat her food. The dream haunted her every thought. "What was that boy talking about?.. The only thing that made sense was that she and Luna.. No.. I mean we connected but… I don't even like girls… I have never thought about another female before…"

Quickly Alexei threw herself to the trash can. Everything in her stomach came out. The guilt and confusion made her sick. The concept was so foreign to her; she didn't even know how to react. "Maybe it is just because my memory is back and my meds different…" she tried to convince herself. "We barely even met. Sure there was a click, but I doubt it was mutual. Even then it wasn't…" That thought lead her back to the trash can.


	4. Pondering

Alexei snapped herself back into reality. The doctor would be in any moment now. As fast as she could, she cleaned up and ate, fighting her nerves. Hopefully being out of the room would clear her mind. She had wanted to discuss her release with Dr. Gordon and find a way to contact her mother. Isolation was really getting to her, maybe her mother could pull a few strings to get privileges for her mentally disturbed daughter who was in rehab. Just thinking about her mother brought a smile to her face. "My mother truly is naive.." Just then there was a knock at the door and the doctor walked in.

Alexei gave the doctor a smile and greeted him as she wiped down her desk from eating breakfast. "I see that you are doing better. That rest in a new bed really did you well." She agreed and pulled out the desk chair for him to sit in while she sat on the bed. The doctor gave her an exam. "Wow, no bruises either! Maybe we can let you grow your nails out." Alexei thanked him and asked him about the tour. "Ah yes, I rather you rested yesterday. But this morning we can go if you are ready." Alexei stood up and said she was ready when he was. From there he led her to the main hallway.

Alexei walked through the halls learning about the new wing of the ward she was in. The doctor told her how amazed he was at her progress. How in just 2 months she had gone from the most secured ward, to solitary, to isolation, to now a regular committed patient. It was at this point and time that Alexei saw the television room. Everything said and done was tuned out and paused except the one person on the screen, Lazarus. On screen he was smiling and waving, thanking people for such a prestigous award. He was named student body president. A job that worked for all the caste systems in making a better school. A job that should have been her's.

Her fists clenched, and her breathing became shallow. Had she not had her medication she knew that her hands would have been glowing hot. As quickly as it began, Alexei calmed herself down and the world resumed once again. With a smile on her face and complete innocence in her tone, Alexei replied to the doctor "but it would not have been done without your help." Dr. Gordon smiled back and thanked her. From the entertainment room he went to show her the library, the cafeteria, the bathrooms, the recreation room, the music room, and the computer room. All of which patients were not allowed in without supervision. At the end of the tour she was introduced to those in her ward. Most seemed to be the typical cracked souls, others just seemed completely lost. This made Alexei feel even more alone than she did in solitary and isolation.

Lying back in her room, Alexei couldn't help but to think about the man she saw on the screen. The love of her life, the one who saved her; her SuperHulk. Even with her memory back she could not understand what happened between them. She had the whole day ahead of her yet nothing to do. It was difficult to motivate herself to leave her bed, let alone her room. Besides, after the tour there was barely anything of interest to her. Finally after lunch Alexei brought herself to go to the library.


End file.
